


Someone You Trust

by AdsoOfMelk



Series: Moving Forward [1]
Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW Comics), Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games), Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types
Genre: Crying, Fluff and Angst, Gen, No Romance, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Spoilers for Issue 27 of IDW Sonic, Takes place after the Metal Virus Arc, she's 6, that would be disgusting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-24
Updated: 2020-04-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:15:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23825185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdsoOfMelk/pseuds/AdsoOfMelk
Summary: Cream is deeply troubled by recent events, and Silver's worry for her brings him to talk with her about how to heal from trauma.
Relationships: Cream the Rabbit & Silver the Hedgehog
Series: Moving Forward [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1721704
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41





	Someone You Trust

“Yo, Silver! You gonna hang out for a bit and help, or are you gonna head on back to the future?”

Silver turned around from his inventory check of the supplies they were missing. The metal virus was recently cured, but society wouldn’t simply go back to the way it was before, and Silver had expressed his desire to help things get back on track.

“Actually, I already checked in on my time, and, uh...” his ears drooped in sorrow, betraying the neutral expression he was fighting to keep. “Things still aren’t good. Looks like I’ll be sticking around for a little longer.”

Sonic was surprised that the future still needed saving after all they had done to secure it, and he desperately wanted to know what might have gone wrong so he could try and prevent it. But Silver looked really down on himself, which Sonic was not okay with after he helped everyone save the world. Cheering him up was a higher priority than learning about Silver’s new post-apocalypse.

“Hey, dude. Don’t look so glum. You’re always welcome in the past to help out. ‘Sides, you saved a lot of people out there. You should be proud.”

Silver offered a weak smile before wordlessly turning back to his duty; a muted reaction which Sonic would not stand for. He placed his hand gently on Silver’s shoulder.

“I know it’s tough. I know what it feels like to have your efforts feel wasted. But I know you, Silver. You won’t give up until you have a future worth living in, and you’re strong enough to make it happen. Keep at it, and the future you’re looking for will come about. I know it will.”

Silver half turned to meet Sonic’s gaze, finally offering the blue hedgehog an authentic smile, even if it still wasn’t as big as Sonic would have liked.

“Thanks, Sonic. It means a lot to hear that right now.”

Sonic flashed him a trademark thumbs-up. _“I_ should be thanking _you._ You’re always around to help clean up our messes. You could be a maid at this point!”

Silver snickered, most likely out of pity for Sonic’s lame joke. Sonic knew most of the laughs he got were pity laughs (except Amy’s), but if his friend was happy enough to laugh then it was more than enough for him. That was all that really mattered.

“I really ought to get back at this,” Silver motioned to the sparse collection of crates and boxes, still grinning.

“Sure thing, pal. And when you get the chance, hit me with the details on the future, ‘kay? We got this!” Sonic began walking away, shooting Silver two finger-guns and winking at him.

Silver shot back a thumbs-up and a wink in response, half-mocking Sonic’s over-the-top attitude, but wholeheartedly reciprocating it, too. Sonic thought it made him look cooler than he already was.

* * *

“Mister Silver? Do you need help?”

Interrupted once more, Silver whipped his head around to search for who offered help. He was happy and unsurprised to discover it was Cream that had hailed him.

“Actually, I was just finishing up, but thanks Cream.” He put on his biggest smile for her, hoping to inject a bit of levity into her life now that the traumatic events of the past few days were over.

It sort of worked, her neutral expression breaking into a slight smile. “Okay. Miss Amy asked me to help you out, but if you say you’re almost done...”

Silver frowned and squatted to make his eyes level with hers. “Shouldn’t you be resting? You kinda went through a lot.”

Cream shook her head, her ears comically flopping about. “You guys saved all of us! I wanna help out. I can’t be a burden again.”

“What?” When did she learn what a “burden” was, and why did she think she was one?

“I’m sure you heard... The virus got me. I turned into one of those things because I wasn’t careful and I had to be saved. Like I always do. The least I can do is help out now that I’m back!”

She looked about to cry, and Silver felt his eyes moisten in sympathy. How could one girl be so wholesome? Why did the world have to hurt someone so young?

“Cream, I—” his voice hitched, and he cleared it. “Cream, you’ve done more than enough. You and Gemerl got a Chaos Emerald all by yourselves! I know you won’t listen if I tell you to go home to your mom, but you should. I’m sure she misses you a lot.”

Something flashed across Cream’s face; a fleeting emotion that Silver didn’t recognize on her small face. If he had to guess, she was suddenly uncomfortable, due to the fact that she took a beat too long to respond to his advice.

“S-Sure,” she said quietly without looking at Silver. “I think I’ll ask to see if anyone else needs help first, if that’s okay.” Without saying goodbye she walked past him and marched out of the room, suspiciously ignoring the people she was supposedly going to ask to help. Whatever that expression meant, it got Silver worrying about her.

He briefly fretted over leaving his work unfinished, but Silver decided to ditch it to see if there was anything wrong with Cream. After everything that had happened to her, _someone_ must have talked to her, right? Reassured her and began easing her back into life after trauma? He dreaded the idea of being the first person to have an open conversation about the horrors they had all faced, but if he really would be the first, didn’t he have an obligation to be there for her?

His instinct was telling him to try and talk with her privately. If she got upset, he wouldn’t want her making a scene in front of too many people. Children aren’t entirely without shame, and Cream was very obviously trying to act older than her age.

Silver left his clipboard and pencil on a crate and began his pursuit. He stealthily followed her down the hallways of the facility, doing his best to stay out of sight of the other workers milling about. He didn’t want to get caught up in conversation, or have to explain why he was stalking a little girl through a pseudo-military complex.

Silver recognized this area of the building as the dormitories, and assumed the room Cream entered was hers. Now Silver felt really strange. Should he go up and knock on her door? On one hand, she would probably know he was following her if he walked up now, but on the other, if she was having a rough time, shouldn’t he talk with her sooner rather than later?

He suddenly felt very heavy. He had never really consoled anyone before, or really had a meaningful discussion with anyone he deeply cared about before. He always felt like an outsider when it came to Sonic and his crew. Sure, they all had their baggage, but Silver was from _the future,_ not to mention a post-apocalyptic one. He felt out of place for being from a different era, and had almost no experience talking to people on a deeper, emotional level. The future was lonely, and even if he tried to hide it under a positive personality, he was woefully unequipped to have a heart-to-heart with Cream.

But he couldn’t let her suffer, so he forced his legs to carry him to her door.

Silver knocked loudly on her door (was it loud? or was he feeling anxious?) and heard Cream call out “Coming!” from within. He swallowed the lump in his throat, preparing to see a tiny tear-streaked face in the doorway.

Instead, Cream looked absolutely fine when she answered the door.

“Mister Silver?” she asked, surprised to see him so soon after their parting. She looked down both ends of the hallway, seeing he was alone. “How’d you know which room is mine?”

Crap. Hadn’t thought of that.

“Errrr...”

“Oh gosh, my manners!” Cream gasped, looking mortified and covering her mouth with her hands. “Please come in first! Do you want something to drink?”

Silver almost let out a huge sigh of relief. He could think of how to answer her question while she fixed a drink.

“Just some water please, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all!” she shouted from her tiny kitchen. “Please sit wherever you like!”

The room was sparsely furnished, with standard-issue tables, chairs, and couches strewn about in their designated spots. A few colorful additions had been made, such as potted plants resting atop small tables and pastel-colored bean bags tossed on the floor. A portrait of Cream, Cheese, Vanilla, and Chocola hung from the wall near the hallway that led to the single bedroom and bathroom. Silver felt a twinge of sadness looking at it; not a single one of them had made it through the incident without succumbing to the metal virus. Even if everyone was okay now, the mere idea of a happy family like this being gone forever filled him with sadness.

“Here you go Mister Silver,” Cream said as she entered the living room carrying a tray with two tall glasses of water on it. “Please sit down.”

“Oh right, heheh,” he laughed awkwardly before taking a seat on the couch. Cream sat in a chair on the opposite side of the table, waiting for him to take a sip of his drink before she started hers.

Right as he began sipping down the water, Cheese rocketed down the hallway, into the living room, and crashed into Cream’s lap, disrupting her beverage.

“Cheese!” she shouted, pretending to be angry. “I almost got water all over you!”

“Chao chao...” Cheese’s muffled, indecipherable response could barely be heard through Cream’s dress, which he was speaking directly into. Silver stifled a laugh.

“Please don’t encourage his bad manners! He needs to be more polite when we have a new guest over!” Cheese, finally acknowledging his friend’s discomfort, looked up at the rabbit with puppy-dog eyes and a pouting lip. Cream didn’t stand a chance.

“Oh, I can’t stay mad at you,” she giggled, setting her drink on the tray and squeezing Cheese with both arms. Silver sipped his drink and watched the adorable duo fawn over each other. It was so sweet he felt cavities beginning to open between his teeth simply by watching it.

“So, how can I help you, Mister Silver?” Cream asked innocently. “Do you need my help with inventory?”

“Uh, no, actually. I’m taking a bit of a break right now.”

“But I thought you said you were almost done?”

“I am. I just wanted to, uh, talk with you, is all.”

She raised her eyebrow quizzically. It made her look a lot more mature than she normally seemed. She didn’t say anything, so Silver continued.

“I was wondering... i-if you were okay?” he stammered. “You looked a little out of it in the storage room, so I—”

“I’m fine, Silver,” she cut him off and said nothing more, drinking slowly from her glass and refusing eye contact with him.

_Okay, something’s definitely up._

“Are you sure?” he asked after a pause. Cream’s suddenly cool eyes locked onto his, and he felt a chill run up his spine.

“I’m sure I’m okay, so please don’t worry about it.”

She looked back to her drink and began sipping again. Silver bit his lip. How pushy should he be? He had never dealt with this kind of situation, much less from someone so much younger than he is. Should he press on? Neither of them were pretending she was _actually_ fine, so why should they act like it?

“I don’t think you’re okay,” he said after another awkward silence.

Cream put her glass on her tray a little too forcefully, making a loud noise that startled Silver.

“Well, I _am_ okay.” Her voice began to waver, but Silver couldn’t tell if it was from rising anger or from sadness. Either way she looked like she was about to let out some strong emotions.

“Cream—”

“Mister Silver, please,” her voice was really close to breaking, now. “I don’t want to talk about it.” She looked away from him and locked eyes with a worried-looking Cheese.

Silver’s heart dropped. He hated seeing her like this, but at the same time he couldn’t simply leave. He knew he wouldn’t be able to fix all her problems here and now, but he couldn’t bring himself to do nothing, either.

“We don’t have to talk about it,” Silver said quietly. “But you should talk to _someone_ about it. Have you talked with Amy?”

Cream said nothing and didn’t move, tears welling up in her eyes.

“What about Gemerl? Sonic? Cream, you—”

“Please leave, Mister Silver,” she choked out, pulling Cheese in for a tight hug and burying her face in his chubby neck.

Silver felt his face begin to burn. His vision blurred as tears began to cloud his vision. Immediately his nose felt plugged.

“No.” His voice cracked, forcing him to clear his throat once more. “No, Cream. I’m not leaving you like this.”

Cream’s body hitched with her quiet sobs. She said something, but Silver couldn’t understand what it was. He got up and made his way around the table.

He tentatively placed his hand on her head, which she recoiled from. These overwhelming negative reactions wounded Silver to the core, but he persisted. He got on his knees, arcing his body over the arm of the comfortable chair Cream sat in. He didn’t invade her space, but he remained just close enough to speak quietly and intimately with her.

“Cream,” his voice cracked again, but he had given up trying to sound okay. “I don’t know what you’re going through. I _can’t_ know what you’re going through, and I don’t need you to tell me. But I don’t think you’re doing this right.”

Cream ceased crying, only to turn her head to scowl at Silver. He had not intended to word his concerns like that, and it broke his heart to see that look on her face pointed at him. For a moment his resolve wavered. He genuinely did not know what to say to this scarred, damaged little girl crying in front of him, and he hated himself for it. Would she even be crying about this if he hadn’t brought it all up?

_Maybe not now,_ his thoughts told him. _But she would cry about it tonight, while she tried to sleep. She would cry about it some other time, maybe in the bath or during breakfast. She can’t hold this in forever._

_What would Sonic say?_

His spirits lifted. The question came out of nowhere, but he clung to it fiercely. It was so simple, so Silver felt confident he could do it. Sonic was one of the people he spent the most time with, after all. In the span of two seconds, he had done another mental lap around guilt, worry, and resolve, ready to say what he could to help his friend.

“Cream. Sometimes, bad stuff happens in your life. Stuff that really messes you up. Stuff that gives you nightmares or makes you afraid of silly things that you shouldn’t be scared of. It happens to everyone. Even me.”

Cream’s scowl didn’t soften, but she maintained eye contact with Silver as he spoke.

“And even when all the bad stuff is over, you’re still scared, and you still have nightmares, and you still feel messed up. It’s totally normal, and you shouldn’t feel ashamed that you feel that way. It’s not a sign of weakness. It’s not a sign that you’re immature or acting like a kid. _Tons_ of grownups and kids and even old folks are still scared of stuff that happened to them a long time ago. They’re still messed up a little. They still have nightmares. Not all of them, but some of them.

“Cream, I’m _begging_ you. _Please_ talk to someone about how you feel. You’re such a sweet kid, and you don’t deserve to spend your life afraid. You should be happy, and not afraid of going to bed and seeing the scary stuff that happened. But it doesn’t just go away. You _need_ to talk to someone. It can be anybody, but it should be someone you trust. _Please,_ Cream. _Please.”_

Silver struggled to speak, his voice straining to break through his heavy crying. He wasn’t without his own trauma. He had seen some messed up crap both from his own time and from his forays here into the past. Truthfully, he didn’t talk enough about it. He was afraid of projecting onto her, but he couldn’t stop himself from letting it all out. He had seen what happens to kids who clam up and shut themselves out. He had been one of them, and was lucky enough to have a group of friends to help him come out of it a little healthier. If he had to be that person for Cream right now, then he would be, even if it wasn’t his place to say it.

Whether or not Silver’s words touched her, he didn’t know at first. Maybe she was crying because he was crying. Maybe she was crying because she didn’t know how to properly convey her emotions at her young age. But for whatever reason, Cream was sobbing, rubbing away the flooding tears from her eyes, and Silver felt his soul shred itself over how guilty he felt.

Until she hugged him. Cream leaned over the arm of the chair and wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, wailing into his shoulder.

“I don’t wanna go home!” he could barely make out the words, but he had never listened more closely to what someone was saying in his life. “I don’t wanna go home! I can’t— I— I have night—” her sobs devolved back into wordless cries, but Silver hugged her back as tight as he could, pouring his love and affection into her through his embrace.

“I’m here,” he whispered to her. “I’m here.”

She whined and hiccuped and shuddered, the initial outburst dying down over a long period of time. But she clung to him tightly, as if he were the only thing keeping her afloat at sea. He hugged her back, gently rocking back and forth, ignoring the soreness of his knees from kneeling on the concrete floor for so long.

Their moment was interrupted by Cheese’s wriggling and shouting in between them. They pulled themselves apart to see the little chao was squished between their chests for their entire hug. He was most likely caught up in Cream’s movements when she hugged Silver, and was caught between them as they embraced.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry, Cheese!” Cream shouted in dismay as she reached out to grab her little friend. “I wasn’t thinking!”

Something told Silver that Cheese wouldn’t have been so forgiving in any other context, but the chao instantly latched onto the top of her head, content with lying there and peppering Cream’s forehead with tiny kisses.

She giggled weakly before coughing, the effort of crying clearly having an effect on her throat.

“Here, the water,” Silver offered her own glass back to her, which she began to gulp down swiftly. She let out a satisfied exhalation when she emptied the glass.

“Thank you, Mister Silver,” she said quietly. The look on her face told him she wasn’t done hugging him, so he moved in closer to offer one last embrace, which she took as an opportunity to throw herself onto him again. The position was not ideal, as with how they were oriented, Cheese ended up right in front of his face. Silver wrapped his arms around Cream’s back gently as he awkwardly made eye contact with her little chao hat. Cheese kissed him on the nose, which made him want to sneeze. But it was cute, and the chao’s lips were insanely soft, as though they were made of marshmallow.

Refocusing on the other cute little person embracing him, he addressed Cream again. “You can just call me Silver, you know.”

“Sonic’s been saying that to me my whole life, and I don’t think you can convince me to do something he couldn’t.”

“Dang, not even Sonic? You’ve already convinced me it’s not happening.”

She giggled again, and it sounded like music to Silver. He tempered his fluttering heart. This was only the beginning; she would have to talk to someone more qualified than him about how to recover from the mental and emotional impact all of this stuff had on her. But until then...

“Cream, do you want to talk to me about what’s been going on?” Silver asked carefully, pulling away from the hug and placing his hands gently on her shoulders. He didn’t want to pressure her in the slightest.

She looked away, her brow furrowing into a worried knot. She said nothing.

“If not, can you promise me you’ll talk to your mom about this? If you just want to talk with me or Amy or anyone for now, that’s okay. But can you promise me that someday you will talk to her about this? She’s your family and she needs to know.”

Cream bit her lip and looked back at Silver, gripping her arm tightly. But she nodded and plucked Cheese from atop her head and hugged him to her chest. “I will. I promise.”

Holding Cheese like that, she looked like the most adorable little girl holding a stuffed animal. He wanted to pinch her cheeks and kiss her forehead before he left, but he knew they weren’t quite there yet. So he smiled at her and patted her head.

“I’ll hold you to that promise, Cream. I meant it when I said you deserve to be happy.”

He pushed himself up from his knees with a pained groan. The joints popped loudly, bringing brief pain followed by a feeling of release and looseness.

“Oh, I’m so sorry—” Cream began, but Silver held up a hand to silence her.

“Please don’t say that. I don’t wanna hear you apologize over anything that happened today.”

Her face blushed and she nodded profusely, her ears flopping about again. “I’m so— I mean: Yes sir, Mister Silver.”

“I really have to finish that inventory, or Amy will bite my head off...” Silver groaned, finally thinking of the consequences of his impromptu break.

Cream laughed loudly, covering her mouth with a hand. “If I help you, she’ll be much nicer to you. Let me come along, please!”

Silver eyed her cautiously. “Are you using your friendship with Amy to get me out of trouble?”

“Is that bad...?” she looked very guilty, but he guessed she was playing it up.

“Yes, but,” he smiled wide at her as he began walking to the front door of Cream’s room, “you won’t hear me complaining. After you, Miss Cream.”

She beamed at him, and merrily skipped through the doorway before thanking him. Cheese floated behind her, stopping in front of Silver, eyeing him up for some reason.

“Uhhhh... after you, buddy.” Silver said, not knowing if chao understood language. He would not receive an answer, because instead of going through the open doorway, Cheese latched onto the tufts of longer fur that grew from Silver’s chest. His first reaction was of intense shock, but Cheese was surprisingly light, and the little chao’s grip (how did he grip without fingers??) wasn’t tight or painful at all. He didn’t really want to pull him off for fear of ripping some hairs out, so Silver resigned himself to be a chao pillow for a bit. He walked through the doorway and closed the door behind him, making sure to lock it.

When Cream saw them, she began to coo and squeal at the sight of them, which caused no small bit of embarrassment from Silver. According to her Cheese wasn’t really friendly in a physical way with too many other people, so Silver felt a bit proud to have earned the small creature’s affection, even if it seemed to be mostly due to his own fluffy physiology. As Cream regaled Silver of the numerous times Cheese napped on Tails’s tails, Silver couldn’t help but smile at her. He didn’t know her very well, but he hoped to change that.

He didn’t need to know her very well to know she was strong. He was confident she would come out of this okay, in time.

**Author's Note:**

> Since the release to the conclusion of the Metal Virus Arc has been postponed, I figured to inject some content here. I tried to keep the details vague, but it shouldn't be a reach to assume that Sonic and an assortment of his crew will save everyone. The only chance I took was that Silver's future is still messed up, which on one hand I want him to be happy, but on the other he's my favorite character. So if his future is fixed, he has no reason to return to the story. We'll just have to wait and see! Anyways, if you see typos or grammar errors please comment to let me know.


End file.
